Part four of the Project Auckland series looks at 'Prosperity and Profile'
Whether it is John Banks or Len Brown who wins the Auckland mayoralty, one thing is certain: there will be an annual "State of the City" or "State of Auckland" report which will measure the Super City's progress under the new mayor's leadership.
Neither Banks nor Brown have released a fully-fledged action plan for what they aim to implement in their first 12 months in office. But both have indicated they want the Auckland Council to sign up to an annual scorecard which will report on metrics ranging from economic growth to educational achievement, environmental protection, internet speed and so on across the Super City.
Brown put his "key performance indicator scorecard" near the top of his business and economic development policy. He says it would help the council ensure it concentrates resources and efforts on the right things. This "state of the region" report will be published annually and be included in an annual "State of Auckland" speech he plans.
His scorecard will measure a host of constraints or enablers of economic development: areas under direct council control, as well as those the Government or private industry is responsible for, such as consistency of power supply, internet connectivity, processing times for resource consents and the percentage of students going into training.
Brown's policy statement says the scorecard will open the council and other agencies up to scrutiny. "In those areas where council is falling behind we will demand better performance and allocate more resources if necessary. Where Government or other parties are falling behind, the council will put pressure on them to improve their game. This will be a key tool in developing Auckland into a city where businesses want to invest." Depending on the success of the economic scorecard in his first term, consideration would be given to expanding it into other areas such as community safety and well-being.
Banks could argue he is already walking the talk through the recent production of Auckland City Council's first State of the City report, which not only produces an economic snapshot of where the city registers on metrics ranging from the unemployment rate through to ranking industries on their contribution to the city's GDP (property and business services has the top ranking), but also has separate sections covering social, environmental and cultural well-being. It would be a simple matter to expand this easily accessible report to cover the boundaries of the new Auckland Council.
Banks' economic policy statement notes Auckland's economy generates 37 per cent of the nation's GDP with the single largest contributor to the overall Auckland economy being the manufacturing sector (16 per cent of regional GDP). It also says New Zealand is in the grip of a worldwide recession, capital is scarce and jobs hard to find.
Banks will focus on rebuilding confidence so banks are willing to lend on sustainable earnings and businesses are willing to lend again. He also intends to concentrate on the small-to-medium enterprise sector, saying SME proprietors account for 10 per cent of the region's workforce and employ a further 21 per cent. "The owners of these businesses are the hard-working Kiwi battlers who are the backbone of our national economy."
With 54,800 Aucklanders unemployed - 7.8 per cent of the workforce - the new mayor will face a big challenge on the job front. Brown would set up a Mayoral Taskforce to address this. Banks notes if the 54,800 unemployed were earning even the minimum wage that would bring an extra $1.2 billion after tax into the Auckland economy.
But neither candidate's economic policies address the substantive issue: Auckland's affordability.
The former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, introduced a voluntary London "living wage" - basically a margin above the national minimum wage to compensate low income earners for the higher costs of working and living in the British capital. This year, successor Boris Johnson announced a 25p increase in the living wage to bring to £7.85 the hourly rate Londoners are judged to require to lift them out of poverty, and set about jaw-boning employers to get them to stump up.
The Greater London authority publishes an annual report by the Living Wage Unit, based in the mayor's office. It's title: A Fairer London: The 2010 Living Wage in London says it all. But it takes an activist approach by City Hall to make such schemes work.
Right of reply
In last week's Project Auckland (Monday September 13) we published an article, "Rejuvenation of the West leading the way". Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey was critical of the way Waitakere had been run prior to his election as mayor in 1992. Harvey was particularly critical of the previous Waitakere City Council, which had been headed by Waitakere's first mayor, Assid Corban.
Corban, who is presently standing for election to the Henderson/Massey Local Board and the Waitakere Licensing Trust, describes as "nonsensical" the claim that, when elected as mayor, Harvey "found a city in economic ruin".
Corban denies this. He says Waitakere City was an amalgamation of three smaller boroughs and the Waitemata City Council, so obviously it had no credit rating when it started out - "zero" as claimed by Mr Harvey, or otherwise. "Furthermore, there were no difficulties with banks or lending institutions during my term as mayor. They were happy to lend to us."
Harvey also asserted that on taking office he found that many of the shops along Lincoln Rd had been closed by order of the council of which Corban was mayor.
He further claimed that "jealousy" was the motivation behind the closure of the stores, and that large retailers wanting to open on Lincoln Rd had failed to get permission "from the previous, Corban-led council".
Corban describes these claims as "absolute rubbish".
"The reason why a number of Lincoln Rd shops closed was because of zoning changes implemented long before I took over as mayor of Waitakere City. These had caused increases in land values and thus in rates.
"This in turn affected the numerous vineyards and orchards on Lincoln Rd at the time, who then relocated, along with their retail outlets. No orders were ever issued to close Lincoln Rd shops. Nor was there ever any opposition at council level to the presence of large retailers on Lincoln Rd. It is complete nonsense to claim that Waitakere City under me as mayor had an 'anti-business ideology'.
"I have been in business all my life."
